Tales of the City 08 - Mary Ann in Autumn

thing. Ginormous. As tall as me.”
    “Okay.”
    “I’m like standing next to them. And they’re both smiling like everything is cool. It was the sin and the punishment, all in the same picture, and they’re smiling about it.”
    “And you were turned on?”
    “Yeah.”
    Jonah’s despair hung heavy in the air, and Jake didn’t know what to say, so he just kept rocking for a while. “Am I doing okay, son?”
    “Yeah. This is good.”
    “Cool.”
    “I just have to talk it out. Put it all out there, so I can banish it. That’s what my therapist says.”
    Jake stroked the kid’s hair a few times. Jonah snuggled closer, like a big yellow cat getting comfortable. “I think Heavenly Father sent me here to test me.”
    “And distribute flyers,” said Jake.
    The crack carved out another silence between them. “You know, dude,” Jonah said. “I don’t judge you for your lifestyle. That’s your choice. I just don’t choose that myself.”
    “Gotcha.”
    “Then who is she, if she’s not your gramma?”
    The sudden change of subject threw Jake. “Oh … she’s just a friend. She’s my boss’s … my business partner’s old landlady. I keep an eye on her and cook and stuff, help out with things.”
    “She was nice to me,” said Jonah.
    “That’s how she is.”
    “Are you worried about losing her?”
    No one had ever asked Jake that question. He’d heard Shawna and Michael talk about Anna’s mortality on several occasions, once even in front of Anna, but he’d never been asked how he personally would feel about her passing.
    “I think about it,” he said.
    “She’s way old, I guess.”
    Jake nodded. “And she seems like she’s kinda ready.”
    “Like … how?”
    “I dunno. She fusses over her clothes in the morning like it’s the last thing she’s ever gonna wear. Scarves and little hats and shit like that. Then she goes out and just sits there for hours, all dressed up, like she’s just waiting for a bus or something.”
    “Sits where?”
    “You know what a gazebo is?”
    “My sister got married in one. At the Radisson in Phoenix.”
    “Right … I built one of those for Anna out back, and that’s where she hangs out. Sometimes it looks like she’s expecting a mother ship to arrive.”
    “Or the Lord.”
    Jake wasn’t going to argue about who or what Anna might be expecting, but the constant intrusion of the divine made him begin to wonder about something.
    “So … are you wearing your sacred underwear now?”
    Silence, and then: “They’re called temple garments, dude.”
    “Whatever.”
    “People mock ’em, but it’s no different from any other religious garb. Like nuns with the habits … or Jewish people with those little beanie things.”
    “C’mon, dude, it’s underwear. Underwear is funny.”
    Jonah held his ground. “Not to us. We wear them to remind ourselves of the covenants we made in the temple. And to gird against temptation. They give them to us at the Endowment Ceremony.”
    They have an underwear endowment ceremony . “So now that you’re a man, Jake, here is the endowment for your underwear … your sacred packer.”
    He smiled to himself and continued to rock Jonah. “How much of you does it, like, cover up?”
    “We’re not supposed to talk about the garments.”
    “Dude, I can Google it.”
    Jonah sighed. He’d obviously been asked this one too many times. “The pants go down to the top of my knees. The top is like a regular T-shirt, only longer. You’re not supposed to see skin if you put your hands over your head.”
    “Can I just … feel?” Jake slipped a finger between two of the buttons on Jonah’s shirtfront.
    “Whoa … dude!”
    Jonah’s squirming overreaction annoyed Jake. “This is supposed to be a nonsexual thing, right? Just man-to-man affection with our clothes on.”
    “Yes.”
    “So why are you acting like it’s something else? I’m down with the program, Jonah. You’re the one who’s actin’ like a teenage girl.”
    “I just don’t—”
    “If I’m gonna cure you from being a homo, the least you can do is let me touch your magical garments.”
    Jonah smiled, rolling his eyes in a way that struck Jake as totally gay. “They’re not magical,” he said, undoing a single button on his shirtfront.
    “Obviously.” Jake rubbed the cotton fabric briefly, chastely, before buttoning up Jonah’s shirt again. “When you headin’ back to Snowflake?”
    “Day after tomorrow. Another elder is takin’